Greece Fire – Giannis Antetokounmpo Reaching New Heights
Giannis Antetokounmpo finished February 4th’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers with a career-high 25 points Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Giannis Antetokounmpo set new career highs across the board last night against the Houston Rockets, with marks of 27 points and 15 rebounds both representing new personal bests.
Amazingly, this came only two nights after Giannis had last surpassed his career high for points also. That previous mark came against the Los Angeles Lakers, and as Giannis to kick on, I decided to break it down.
First things first: all due credit to YouTube user Dawk Ins for compiling and uploading the highlight package that serves as the basis for this breakdown.
With that being said, let’s get to that tasty, tasty Giannis action. We’re gonna take apart this video and look at what Giannis accomplished on his career night, and how we can extrapolate it into his future in the NBA.
Optimism will abound.
The video:
0:15 Great positioning by Giannis puts him in a great spot to catch a rainbow pass and go up for the quick lay-in. Great movement off the ball, an example of how advanced Giannis’s mental game is for being only 20 years old.
0:36 More mental acuity from our Greek God, filling his lane properly and finishing ahead of traffic with a sweet one-handed jam. Future dunk contest champ.
0:53 Is Giannis a basketball genius with all these smarts? Perhaps. This time it’s on defense, as he slaps his giant hand down and knocks a hastily-passed ball away for a heady steal. He finishes the sequence with a fantastic transition pass beyond the arc to OJ Mayo for an assist. He is already a two-way player and stat sheet stuffer.
1:05 Much like the first play, Giannis gets behind the defense to catch a high-arcing pass. This time he finishes with a dunk. He is in the dunk contest, by the way.
Giannis asserting himself Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
1:12 Here’s where things get really interesting, as Giannis busts out a pure finesse move with his back to the basket down low, pulling out for a turnaround jump hook. These are the shots that separate good players in the paint from great ones.
1:20 The classic help-defense block, as Giannis peels off his man in the restricted area and pops up from behind his teammate to bat down a shot. Giannis has the same timing on blocks it took Larry Sanders three years to develop.
1:34 This isn’t as impressive as that aforementioned block, but it’s just as important. Speaking of Larry, this kind of close-up contest is what makes him a defensive presence. Sometimes great defense doesn’t show up in the box score.
1:41 Another nifty move, in traffic, in the paint. The key here is how Giannis adjusts his arm angle mid-shot to force a tougher contest by his defender. Usually it takes a young player a few years to develop that kind of instinct.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Giannis has some long strides Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
1:48 A good example of shaking off contact to finish a drive, a very important attribute for Giannis because he is exceedingly skinny and probably will be for his entire career.
1:57 A shiny new toy! We’ve all been worried about whether Giannis’s jump shot would come around. His mid-range jumper is already reliable and improving every game, and on this one he does a great job of getting his opponent heading backwards to create space. Another little thing mastered that makes Giannis precocious.
2:12 Important to note is that Giannis begins this sequence nearly at the top of the key. He takes Nick Young off the dribble, down to the post where he can utilize a clear mismatch in height. Once his back is to the basket, he gets Young going left with a heady fake, then immediately pulls it back and spins around for an impressive dunk. I and the internet agree that this was Giannis’s play of the night. It’s plays like this that really highlight Antetokounmpo’s potential. How many other guys do you see do this, especially at age 20! Relive the majesty!
Back to the original.
2:24 It’s not flashy, it’s not special, but it’s important. One thing we never saw much of last year from Giannis was setting screens. Last year Giannis was secluded in the corner, where he’d either cut down the baseline of move out onto the wing. Here, Giannis sets two separate picks in as many seconds, which is an accomplishment for a young player with a frame like his. That spindly body of his let him down a little bit, as he ended up on the floor, but he hustled back onto his feet and got a nice made jumper out of it. Just one more thing outside of scoring that makes Giannis eminently valuable to the Bucks when he’s on the floor.
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And finally, at 3:26 Giannis seals his then-career high with a nice and-1 off a questionable continuation. He nails his fifth free throw, which gives me a chance to point out he finished 5-5 from the line, improving on another area of weakness. His free throw shooting has improved greatly and he isn’t through yet.
After the game, coach Kidd mentioned that 25 may not be Giannis’s career high for long, and boy was he right. Be sure to check out Dawk Ins on YouTube in the next few days for the highlights, and you’ll see Giannis employing the same off-ball movement, defensive chops, and court vision that make him a star-in-the-making. He is growing up before our very eyes, and developing into a future all-star. It has been far too long since we in Milwaukee could enjoy a player improving like this, so let’s enjoy the ride!
The wait won’t be as long as we thought at first.